The spring and summer of ’08 was when it all started.
I was a newbie feeling my way around the blogosphere, and I kept encountering these colorful, little, round sandwich cookies with feet. I knew what they were, but was oddly fascinated by the popularity of these sweeties, as well as the myriad of discussions pertaining to them, especially the challenges that came with executing them perfectly. Smooth, even shells, and FEET, were imperative to achieving the ultimate beauty of a French macaroon aka macaron, and people seemed to tear their hair out over it. Soon, I was to become one of those people.
I piped vanilla macaron batter designs on the wet chocolate macarons, and chocolate macaron batter designs on the wet vanilla macarons, then let them dry before baking, and it worked! I was positive I would end up with sunken or ugly shells, but they were perfect!
I know summer isn’t the best time to tackle the mighty macaron, because last summer I spent two months or more, on and off, trying to execute these darling little cookies, and the summer humidity gave me flat-chested bitches with lopsided feet. On a slightly positive note, I always got feet, no matter how ugly they turned out.
That said, my kitchen was strewn with baking sheets of different colored little mounds of drying macaron batter, along with failed attempt after attempt. Containers of aging egg whites were lined up like soldiers waiting for their beating, and streaks of tant pour tant (the finely ground amalgamation of almond meal/flour and confectioner’s sugar) was strewn across the floor, marred by perfect kitty paw prints. I had egg white on my face, fingers every color of the rainbow, and disposable pastry bags were the main component of my garbage can. After that fiasco, I thought to myself…
NEVER AGAIN! These are a major pain in the ass! I’ll just buy them and kudos to those bloggers who have mastered them, because, wow, they are mega-bitchy cookies; cookies in a permanent state of PMS!
Well, well, well, wouldn’t you know it, this month’s Daring Baker’s Challenge just so happened to be the mighty macaron. Now I had no choice; I had to do lunch with the bitch, and dinner, and breakfast, and well, she had to live with me for a while, even though she left one hell of a mess the last time she stayed over.
Dammit.
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S of Baking without Fear. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe. Thanks, Ami! (sorta).
I decided to start with Pierre Hermes’ famous Ispahan macaron. Am I freakin’ crazy? After all I went through that fateful summer, was I really going to attempt to construct the Grand Dame of the macaron when there was a good chance my shells wouldn’t turn out? Yep, because as most of you know or have realized by now, I can never keep things simple. Well, in the case of Mizzz Ispahan, I was going to actually make it simple. Hard to believe, huh?
I decided to ditch the raspberry gelee center and use raspberry jelly instead – as in the stuff in the jar. Does it really have to be a perfect cube of perfectly set raspberry gelee? It tastes the same, so that’s my attempt at simplifying my life via taking shortcuts.
However, I do not want any rose essence, rose oil, rose water, rose syrup, rose anything in my baked goods Why? Because rose tastes likes a baby smells. So does violet aka scented grandma,, and all other flower essences that many love to add to baked goods, to me anyway. Leave the flowers for looking at, smelling, and guilty husbands,thank you; just keep them out of my mouth.
Well, I did sip a hibiscus margarita once. Didn’t gross me out, but meh.
The Ispahan in front was made using Claudia’s recipe/method. The small ones in back, Helen’s. Notice the difference? Flat with bad feet, to puffed with nice feet.
Regardless, I’ve seen so many different versions of the lovely, but mighty Ispahan, that I wasn’t sure which road to take. I decided to go with Trissa’s (of Trissalicious) Ispahan, and well, it’s written as Pierre Hermes’ recipe, so, why not? Plus, her Ispahan looked so gorgeous, I couldn’t resist, even though I knew mine wouldn’t come close, and it didn’t, not by a long shot.
I win for the worst Ispahan macaron ever.
But. it did taste good, thanks to Trissa.
Trissa’s filling is a lychee-white chocolate-rose ganache. Others I have seen call for a rose-lychee buttercream, and yet another, a raspberry-rose buttercream. Well, WHICH IS IT? I didn’t think deep thought was appropriate here considering I needed to just focus on how I wanted to make this queen of a macaron cookie.
I love white chocolate, and I love lychee, so subtract the rose-scented whatever, and I’m good to go. I treated some fresh raspberries with pectin, then dried them in my oven for about 10 hours, grinding them into a powder when they were completely dry. Perfect topping for my soon to be imperfect and ugly Miz Ispahan.
Remember when I said I was going to make things simple for once? Scratch that. I ended up making several flavors, leaving most everything to the last minute. Fooled you all, didn’t I? Actually, I fooled myself too! Here are the macarons I decided to make:
- Ispahan, as mentioned above, in which my mac shells for the large ones baked flat and looked awful. NO DO OVERS, it’ll have to do.
- Lemon zest-thyme shells with a Swiss meringue filling (fold 1 tablespoon of lemon zest and 1 teaspoon chopped thyme leaves into macaron batter with the egg whites; use yellow gel paste to color. Top with thyme leaves and lemon zest; let dry, then bake.)
- Pumpkin shells with pumpkin cheese filling,
- Chocolate shells with vanilla swirls, dots, stripes and squiggles on top (wasn’t quite sure if it would work, but it did!), filled with white chocolate ganache.
- Vanilla shells with chocolate swirls, dots, stripes and squiggles on top, some filled with chocolate ganache, some filled with Nutella.
- Chocolate shells with cocoa nibs, filled with cocoa nib buttercream
- 100% Vanilla. Vanilla sugar and beans in the shells, vanilla bean buttercream filling; topped with vanilla sugar. I’m definitely a vanilla gal to the highest degree.
Why does it seem like this entry is missing something. OH, that’s right, I haven’t whined about a problem yet! Well, here we go! The recipe Ami provided, by Claudia Fleming, did not result in an aesthetically pleasing macaron for me. I used her recipe for most of my Ispahans, which was a mistake since those were the ones I really wanted to turn out lovely. What did I know? However, I wasn’t going to make another batch of large pink shells, so that was that.
The method she uses requires oven drying, then baking instead of air drying then baking. I really tried; I tried everything, but I kept pulling out sheet after sheet of uneven feet and shells that flattened in certain areas once cooled. I have no idea what I did wrong, but I truly believe it’s the recipe or method because I chose to use Helen’s (of Tartelette) recipe for all the other macaron flavors, and they turned out gorgeous!! Smooth, silky shells, beautiful, perfect feet; chewy on the inside; delicately crispy on the outside. Why didn’t I use Helen’s recipe in the Summer of ’08? Well, factoring in the humidity, those probably wouldn’t have turned out either, so I won’t bash myself in the head over it.
Even though I went overboard as usual, and once again ended up with egg white and tant pour tant in my hair, technicolor fingers, and sheets of piped macarons drying all over my kitchen, this time it was well worth it. Miss Macaron, you have an open invitation (within limits) to stay at my place any time you’d like, and you can thank Helen for that. I’m even considering doing Macaron a Month entries at this rate. So many cool flavor combos to explore!
Macaron Recipe
Macarons
Recipe from Claudia Fleming
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Rub the vanilla bean scrapings into the sugar until the sugar turns the color of the vanilla beans. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the vanilla bean granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.
Yield: 10 dozen. Ami’s note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.
- ¼ cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 big, fat plump vanilla beans, scraped
- 1¾ cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup almond flour, finely ground
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsalted butter, 2 sticks, at room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 big, fat plump vanilla beans, scraped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 oz room temperature cream cheese
- 2 oz mascarpone cheese
- ½ cup canned or fresh cooked and pureed pumpkin, cooked down until darker in color.
- ⅔ cup confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- Make the Macaron shells
- Rub the vanilla bean scrapings into the sugar until the sugar turns the color of the vanilla beans. Remove 2 tablespoons of this mixture to another bowl (this will be the topping to the macarons). Set both bowls aside.
- In the work bowl of your food processor, combine the powdered sugar, almond flour, and the ½ teaspoon of salt, and process on low until super fine. Sift the almond flour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl.
- In a clean, grease free bowl with electric beaters, or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the vanilla bean granulated sugar you set aside iin step 1, and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Beat in vanilla extract.
- Add about half of the sifted almond flour mixture at a time to the beaten egg whites and use a rubber spatula to gently fold it into the beaten egg whites until combined. After the last addition of almond flour, continue to fold slowly until the batter falls into ribbons and you can make a figure eight with the batter when you let it drop from the spatula.
- Transfer the macaron batter into a piping bag fitted with a round tip.
- Place 4 dots of the batter in each corner of a rimmed baking sheet, and place a piece of parchment paper over it, using the batter to help adhere the parchment to the baking sheet.
- Pipe the macarons onto the parchment paper in 11/2 -inch (3-cm) circles, spacing at least 1-inch (2-cm) apart.
- Tap the baking sheet on a flat surface several times to release any air bubbles. Sprinkle every other macaron shell with a little of the 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar.
- Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until dry to the touch.
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degress C).
- Bake the macarons for 17 minutes, until the feet appear and have risen. The macarons should not stick to the parchment paper. If they do, once cooled, they are not done.
- Transfer the macarons to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.
- In a large bowl with electric beaters, or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter with the vanilla ben scrapings until fluffy and uniform. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat until uniform, then beat in the vanilla extract and cream until light and fluffy.
- Place the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.
- Add a piping of buttercream to one macaron shell. Top it with another macaron shell to create a sandwich. Repeat with remaining macaron shells and buttercream.
- Add 1 tablespoon of dark cocoa powder to the almond flour-powdered sugar mixture. Sandwich with Vanilla Buttercream with cacao nibs stirred in, or chocolate ganache or chocolate buttercream.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and thyme to the beaten egg whites then beat in yellow food color gel. Top each macaron shell, before it dries, with some lemon zest and thyme leaves. Make a Swiss meringue (not swiss meringue buttercream, just swiss meringue) for the filling, and place in a pastry bag with a round tip. Pipe the buttercream onto one macaron shell and top with another.
- Add 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice to the almond flour - powdered sugar mix. Add orange gel food color to beaten egg whites.
- In a bowl, beat together both cheeses. Add the pumpkin, the powdered sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix until smooth and uniform. Chill for about an hour or so.
- Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, then pipe onto every other macaron shell (tinted with powdered or gel orange food color) and sandwich with another macaron shell.
Check out the the Daring Bakers macaron challenge and recipes, HERE.
Finally!!!!!!!!!
😛
Your macarons look friggin AWESOME Lis 😀 I love the colour of the pumpkin ones 😀
Stunning as always 🙂
Stunning! Beautiful! Amazing! The pumpkin ones blow my mind. I had wanted to do a slew of macaroons as well but after one batch that idea seemed to daunting to even contemplate and here you are with your plethora of flavors….I am overwhelmed!
OMG! Yours are exquisite. The lemon-thyme and the pumpkin – love them, want them, and will definitely try out those flavor combos once I resume practicing! Great post.
I knew it! I knew it!! I KNEW IT!! You blew me away with how freaking AWESOME your macarons turned out! Seeing all of these pictures makes me actually want to make more, even though I’m so sick of making them over the past several months. They all look delicious, but that pumpkin picture is WOW–so beautiful!! I’m totally with you about rose water in food–so NOT me either. It reminds me of old lady bad perfume. 🙂
Loved the chocolate and vanilla–pure perfection! (This post was so worth the wait–I’m a little happy-goofy now!)
Super super super well done my friend! And the pictures! I think they are one of the best I’ve seen this challenge. Well done. Really well done!
What a cute little macarons!
It looks amazing!
And all the colors and flavors’ combination are beautiful
How do you have the time and will to bake it all? 🙂
I liked the dots and stripes decorative idea, very original.
Great job as always!
Your macarons look Amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing!!! Beautiful photography, especially the pumpkin!!! 🙂
Great job! I had problems too with Fleming’s recipe, so I used Helen’s too.
Lisa!! You always do such beautiful incarnations of the challenge! Love these & can’t wait for next month ;D.
I’ll have to check out the recipe from Tartelette, as your macarons are absolutely georgous! I love the pumkin ones! And you always get feet too? I should take notes! 😉
I want to go to your house for macarons! I’m so jealous. Every single one looks perfect and beautiful. You really have these down. I guess I’ll just keep at it.
Wow, I am amazed! You really outdid yourself here!
Those macarons look so pretty and are perfect! I love your choice of flavorings and fillings!
Cheers,
Rosa
Oh, they’re gorgeous! I knew you’d wow us! I love how the pumpkin-flavoured ones are exactly the colour of the pumpkin! And they’re all so perfectly shaped! And don’t worry, I had trouble with the challenge recipe as well. But you pulled through with flying colours!
Luv ya but you’re insane! 🙂
Go Yankees!!
~ingrid
Your cookies are almost as gorgeous as you. Well done and the pumpkin and chocolote ones pop right through my computer screen. Yummy.
I can’t believe how absolutely gorgeous your macarons (and photos) are!! And those pumpkin ones… OMG!! So very very well done!! I have just gotta to make myself a new batch, sort of now…
I was waiting and waiting, and you didn’t disappoint. How fantastic all of your little macaron versions – of course! Those flavours, and varieties. Fantastic. I struggled with the chosen recipe and had to do a few little tweaks to make it work. Seemed really out of proportion from my experience. Anyway, so glad everyone has had more luck with Helen’s version. Especially you!
Gorgeous macarons! I like all the variations.
Oh, great job! Your macarons look stunning, and your flavors sound decadent!
Oh your chocolate ones are just so purty!! And the pic of the pumpkin ones divine 🙂 I had trouble with the challenge recipe too and switched to Tartelette’s instead.
My dear girl, I am blown over by your macarons. They are absolutely gorgeous and so many to choose from! I’m having a awful time deciding so I’ll take one of each please. All I can say is you’ve surpassed everyone as far as I’m concerned. Well, well done!
Ummmm…. WOW. Could these be any more awesome? Yeah, didn’t think so. I particularly love the pumpkin shot. Amazing as usual!!
As usual you somehow make me feel better. that my macarons were a failure (it was my first try!) doesn’t seem so bad when I’m laughing about your passionate Italian relationship with macarons. Maybe someday I’ll make some like yours….
Absolutely fabulous! Love all the colors and flavors! You really rock!
I am surprised you could still turn Amy’s recipe into presentable Ispahan. I quitted mine since it got flat on the first 5 minutes, I knew by then it wouldn’t work with so little sugar in the meringue.
Well, you have done wonderfully with so many variety. There are all my favs: the pumpkin ones – loves the orange color, the thyme ones – striking texture, chocolate and vanilla – significant touch of dots, swirls and lines. They are all share the same quality: gorgeous and delicious.
Great great great job, Lisa. Something I always expect from you and once again, you delivered 🙂
Stunning lovely delectable and the colour of the pumpkin macaron is amazing. Superb work and great that you make Helen’s recipe produce such uber creations. You must be proud they are so professional and the photos are excellent as usual. I think you should go into macaron making as a business. Cheers from Audax in Australia. Stunning effort Bravo Bravo Bravo. A
Beautiful photos! I love the range of colours and fillings you made
Wow, your macarons look just fantastic…so cute…and lemon-thyme, pumpkin, the berries with the lychee ganache…unbelievable! So well done and the pictures are to die for 🙂 Very nice!
Wow, gorgeous macaroons! I love all of the versions but especially the pumpkin ones, so perfect for Halloween!
what a gorgeous little things…
Beautiful colors and filling, the pumpkin is amazing.
you are the best.
thanks very much my dear for your help, i didnt get the chance to work my fourth batch yet but I did try Helene’s recipe and it work very good from the first time.. I want to try this and see what is wrong with it….but I better post my challenge and then do a continue version…
thanks my friend
I love, love, love those pumpkin orange ones at the bottom! I love it!
WOW! Great job! Now I feel lazy 🙂
LM!! You are amazing!!!! Boy I wish my traveling schedule would allow me more time to bake… oh well. YOU DID AMAZINGLY ON THIS CHALLENGE!!
Oh my god – I busted out laughing a bunch of times while reading this.
When you said “flat-chested bitches with lopsided feet” I thought you were talking about me.
But then you said “rose tastes likes a baby smells” and I forgave you because I was laughing so hard water nearly shot out of my nose. That is the most accurate metaphor of all time.
Beautiful job, as always!
These are so beautiful!!! i’m quite impressed…and your pictures are just wonderful.
Ooooh! I love your fillings! Especially the pumpkin one – brilliant! I’m adding this to my list of macaron inspirations. 🙂
SO fantastic!!! The pumpkin macarons are my favorite, but they’re all gorgeous!!
Pingback: Macarines not Macarons
I think you win for most fabulous macs on this challenge! Amazing combination of flavors and colors! I’m not worthy!
You have outdone yourself girl! 🙂 I’m so happy for you that you tried Helen’s recipe. Looks like most of those who had great success have used Helen’s.
BTW, thanks for your encouragement. I will have to wait a while before I’ll try it with other recipe instead. I have too much on my plate this time of the year! 😛 Thanks for stopping by!
F-ing Hell! These are bloody brilliant! You are just awesome!! Love the post esepecially the ‘flat chested bitches’ LOL!! Brilliant Post, Brilliant Macs and Brilliant YOU!
Beautiful feet and geometric patterns (so ’80s retro)! But the lemon thyme macs, they make my stomach growl as a matter of fact, I’ll take a few off your hands if you find that you have too many…
All your macaroons turned out beautiful. That must’ve been fun to return to macaroons after toiling with them during the summer! The pumpkin macaroons turned out an absolutely brilliant orange. Thanks for posting the filling recipe. BTW – love your photography – the composition on the pumpkin macaroons is the best!
Whoa!!!! You did outdid yourself (as usual). Why can’t I get great feet like that on my macs?
My favorite is the pumpkin. How amazing would these be on Thanksgiving? Great job!!
oh lisa these look amazing i am especially in love with the lemon thyme and pumpkin ones. perfect all around. kudos for going all out on this challenge!
Girl, when you do something, you REALLY do it! Love that! They all look amazing … I don’t know which I want to eat first. Eh, who are we kidding, I’d go for the chocolate ones. 😉
These are awesome. Loving the pumpkin ones! I failed terribly, but maybe next time!
You had way too much fun (and way too much success!) They’re all beautiful!
What a great job!:)
Well done Lisa!
I love the pumpkin ones. They look so beautiful!:)
Seems so trite to just say wow, but WOw! You really embraced this challenge. I love all the flavours and colours. My heart would probably belong to those pumpkin ones.
I KNEW you’d have KICK ASS macarons! I’m especially taken with the pumpkin.. what did you fill with? And how did you get such a gorgeous color? Your Ispahans are also incredibly beautiful!
And YES! I vote for a macaron of the month – nay! Week! Just to see what flavor combos you come up with. 😀
Hugs!
XOXOXOXOXOX
Lis..I came up with a pumpkin cheese fillig. It’s posted. As for the color, a few drops of orange gel in the tant pour tant, then let it dry overnight. This turned out to be a good thing for even the TPT’s without color..as my shells turned out smoother when I let the TPT sit out and dry, as opposed to folding it in right after grinding.
My favorite is the pumpkin one as well. The color is beautifully striking!
Awesome story, I really made me laugh!! And your macs… well, yours miss macaroons are absolutely of Miss World-class 😉 The photo with the pumpking macs (thanks for the recipe, I am certainly going to try that!) is stunning, just great!!
Un abrazo from Spain (I am a newbie a the DK 😉 )
Fabulous job and good on you for persevering! You definitely triumphed in the end! 😀
Waw!!! again, every time you seem to amaze me with your culinary skills!
When are you going to open your patisserie???? I wonder,…
You killed this challenge, and buried it. Gorgeous!
Oh my! I LOVE the pumpkin ones. You have done a fabulous job as usual. You are such a creator!
I kinda think the way you think about lavendar and rose. But this past year I ahve pushed myself out of the comfort zone. Just a little in a recipe is good. Like rose marshmallows and lemon lavendar tarts. They are not my absolute favorites- but they are good.
Wow, this is a feast of macarons! I love all of them. The lemon-thyme macarons look out of this world. You really came up with some awesome macarons. You’re a macaron goddess!
How did you flavor your macaroons? Furthermore, how did you get those amazing colors? I am so envious because they are amazing!
I used a drop or three of orange gel color, as my powdered orange coloring was too bright. I then let the tant pour tant dry overnight, uncovered, to insure smooth shells. I got lucky that it ended up matching the pumpkins 🙂 As for the flavor, the shells aren’t flavored, just pumpkin filling to make well, ‘pumpkinny’ lol
Woo hoo!The pumpkins macs take the prize…very nicely done!
wow. You did such a freaking good job 🙂
Not only did you get feet, but look at all the variety! I think the raspberry ones with fresh raspberries are my favorite.
Thank you for the nice comment you left on my blog.
Wow, so many beautiful Macaroons! You did a great job there 🙂
Oh my goodness. I had to comment about your macarons. They are perfect! Even though I detest all things pumpkin, those pumpkin macarons look perfect! Great job!
Hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed you pumpkin filling recipe. It’s fabulous! I’ve seen a bunch with cream cheese, but none with mascarpone. Love it! I wish I had dyed mine with orange – yours are so cute!
Macarons everywhere! They all look great, but sorry you had trouble with the recipe we were supposed to do (as it seems many people did). All the flavors sound outstanding!
These are all so gorgeous and creative! My faves are the pumpkin ones.
Dude, are you a masochist or what? What an amazing array of macs, all across the color and flavor spectrums. My faves are probably the pumpkin and lemon-thyme ones (I’ve had PH’s Ispahan from the shop and, while Papa Pierre is my pastry boyfriend, I think it’s too sweet). I know I don’t comment very much but I’m always amazed by how thoroughly you do everything. Btw, if you’re thinking of making macs regularly, I’m pretty sure that Jamie (Life’s a Feast) and Deeba (Passionate about Baking) are about to announce a regular “mac-athon” (there was one earlier) and would love to see your lovely mug participate. =)
Lisa, WOW! I knew I would find perfection here!! LOVE the photo in the middle with the chocolate smear…love! AWESOME.
Hi! I’m Hilda’s friend and Deeba and I are indeed organizing our second Macathon but boy oh boy seems like you’ve been there done that! Amazing! I already visited and ogled and thought I left a comment but you may have just left me speechless! Gorgeous! And all those flavors and colors! Wow! You inspire! I’ve made macs 4 times (first time 3 different flavors with Italian meringue from P. Herme’s book, 3 times sans IM) and i love the process even more than I like eating them. Just let me know if you want to join us in our virtual kitchen and make macs with us. I want to learn how to dry fruit for the shells, too!
What a dazzling collection of macaroons. You are too clever! And so, I can’t help but wonder what happened to all the egg yolks? Are you up to your knees in custards and curds as well? Great work.
Hey beautiful…what did YOU do last night????? Did you happen to watch a little team called the New York Yankees WIN the world Series? Nahh, you were probably doing other things. Ha ha. Canyon of Heroes, tomorrow, wanna go?
Nice cookies by the way 😉
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. job! All of them are wonderful but the pumpkin ones just stole my heart!
Wowww these are amazing!! They look so so good! Great job.
These are gorgeous and amazing! Love the presentations, too. Sorry it took so long, but my browser kept crashing when I came to your site…fixed now!
1. Sorry to hear you were sidelined (bit of info from Fahrenheit 350)- hope you’re back to it and moving in the direction you want to go soon! 2. OMG- your macaroons look amazing- all 40,000 variations of them! 3. LOVE the cat pictures mixed in with the macaroons and other yummies! 🙂
Hello! I found your blog today perusing for the Lavain Bakery Chocolate chip Walnut Cookie. I love your sense of humor, and candidness in your take of culinary disasters!
It’s really comforting to know others out there who are satisfied in ‘living and learning’!
Great work!
I am here from the Far. 350 giveaway. Hope that you are feeling better soon…and those macaroons look AWESOME! Yummo…get better soon!
those are soo gorgeous! oh my goodness! and LOOK divine! i found your site from fahrenheit 350. I love your website. So creative. and looks delicious!
Everything you show here is amazing. I wish I could do that. No patience.
Saw your pumpkin macarons at Farenheit 350 and fell in love. They are stunning.
I seemed to have missed seeing your lovely macarons, but I’m glad I just did.
I think one point of consistency in almost all my macaron making expeditions has been a “lack of feet”! LOL
Really enjoyed this post about one of favorite sweet obsessions. Photos are absolutely stunning. Thank you for sharing! I will not attempt to make these at home since I live in Paris, land of the macaron. But today I think I am going to have to make a trip to my favorite shop, Delmontel….
Pingback: Macarons: My new favourite use for egg whites | Kayahara
I’ve been searching for some weeks to recognize the reasons of my problem. I don’t need to do it no more. Thanks to a piece of advice you published now I know what it was.
Pingback: French Macarons – Lemon, Raspberry, Chocolate Hazelnut | Eden's Table
Pingback: French Macaron | Eden's Table
Pingback: jaimee rose › Pumpkin macaron madness (and locally, too!)
What gorgeous macarons!! WOW! I love the lemon thyme combo and the pumpkin ones look perfect!